Last Train to Life
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Adventures on the way to NYC
The train to New York is leaving in an hour, so Amira really needs to rush. Her bag is halfway made, but the station is down the street. It shouldn’t take her more than fifteen minutes to get everything done, and she would soon be stepping on the city of her dreams.
“You’re always running late, Amira.” Her mother would say to her before she almost missed the bus to school every day.
“You missed the opportunity of getting that scholarship for free piano classes because you registered too late,” her old brother had told her.
And it was always like this in her life. She didn’t understand why she was a procrastinator, why she always had to leave things for the last minute. Who had she taken after, really?
Her father was a serious and dedicated businessman, who had inherited his father’s old shop in their small town in the south of Pakistan. He had never been late for anything in his life. Her brother was always the best student in the class and was taught to never procrastinate and cram before exams.
But Amira was the opposite. She waited until the last minute to review her teacher’s notes. She missed registration deadlines. Her coupons would expire before she had time to use them.
But she didn’t waste time replying to her uncle’s invitation to live in the US, in New York to be precise.
From an early age, she’d watched American movies that took place in New York. She had always been fascinated by the skyscrapers and the city lights. She was stunned by the crowd who rushed through the streets but who didn’t seem to live in fear of bombs exploding out of nowhere.
Amira’s mother once told her a story of when her daughter was six years old and was going to elementary school. She was running a little behind the other kids and missed the school bus. Amira was picked up by her neighbor who noticed her in the street on her own. A few hours later, they had news that the bus had been hit by a bomb, caused by a suicidal man. Amira had been late for school but not for life, after all.
Sometimes she wonders if that’s the reason why she always felt like she didn’t have to come in time for anything. But she doesn’t give it much thought — especially after…
